It's finally here! The Extreme Makeover Home Addition Buffalo is airing this Sunday night at 8:00PM. Apparently we had the highest volunteer turnout in Makeover history! Although I'm not surprised. This city really steps up to the plate for people in need. This show was such an amazing experience to be part of and let me tell you why besides the obvious of getting to work side by side with Ty Pennington. Yes, ladies he is just as amazing in person! What was really cool about this show was its ability to inspire. I believe there were over 6000 volunteers working on this project, but not just the Powell home. Thanks to David Homes, the builder, and PUSH Buffalo, an organization which Delores Powell helped start, they decided just helping one family wasn't enough. They wanted to transform an entire neighborhood! I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with the Executive Producer of the show, who, by the way is so passionate about what they're doing and the people they're helping. He really wants to save the world one house at a time. Anyway, I was complimenting him on how great it was that he was transforming not just the Powell house, but the entire neighborhood and he said he couldn't take the credit, that it was David Homes who said they wouldn't take on this project unless the show would agree to let them do more than this one home- cool, huh?! So they started going door to door and asking their neighbors what they needed done on their homes and they did it. They gave someone who had no indoor plumbing for 2 years and had been using a hose for water an entire indoor plumbing system. They replaced roofs, siding, sidewalks, painted beautiful murals over buildings that had been tagged, added parks, rebuilt condemned houses and so much more. And it's still going on! PUSH Buffalo made it their personal mission to keep this going and bring pride back to the westside neighborhoods. Have you been to the Westside lately? There are some pretty amazing transformations going on there. It's all about finding your gifts and talents and using them to help others which is what I've done with Wear 'n Share. Here's another example, a gentleman by the name of Dorian Gaskin who lives here in Buffalo teaches his trade to others and brought together other people like him with plumbing experience, carpentry, etc., anyone who had a talent they were willing to donate time to teach others and started an organization to get people who are unemployed the skills to find jobs and get back into the workforce and earning a living for their family. These people take their God-given talents and share them with others to help families in need. What are your talents? How can you use them to help others? Think about it. You can make a difference just by choosing to do so. So figure out what you're going to do this year to make 2010 your year of giving back.
I'll leave you with one more story about a woman who contacted me to volunteer for Wear 'n Share. She said her husband had been without a job for a year and she was working 3 jobs, one her own delivery business, trying to keep the family afloat. She knew things were tough for them, but she told me there are families out there that have it so much worse than they do, so she wanted to help me make deliveries. This is a family Wear 'n Share should be helping, but instead she took her talents (a delivery service) and decided to help families who are worse off than they are.
People like her and Dorian Gaskin, and David Homes and PUSH Buffalo. These are some of the heroes that inspire me to be a better person, to want to use my talents to help families in need. I'm hoping hearing about their good work will inspire you too. We all have the ability to make an impact on this world. What will yours be?
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